adjust

If it wasn't for the saving grace of busting concrete out of a wall for new window installation or crawling around a muddy trench drilling holes into cement, I would have a tough time with the culture adjustments.

I am ashamed to admit that. I had hoped I'd be tougher.

Things are not that bad. And I trust the creator laid before me these brutal manual labor jobs for family members in order to survive the limbo/culture shock adjustment. Overall I am faring well.

But one thing about Canada that is really hard for me to grasp: here, you truly ARE what your employment is.

It's not that career or job isn't an idol in the US or the rest of the world. But in Canada it just seems more so. Every form I've filled out or interview I've endured involving immigration, auto registration bullshit, bank account set ups, or house buying all asks "who am I" as a means of saying "your employment?"

We barely got a mortgage due to my lack of being employed. Self employment isn't worth shit here unless you've built up a huge business over time. Thankfully there was one bank who'd work with us. And I have an established father-in-law in the Big City willing to co-sign, etc.

All of this is part of the culture in the US too. But in Canada, you really are a nobody if you're a secret agent.

Humbling. A nobody. Seems like something I should embrace...